"Okwiita ebiito" is another Ankore tradition that we used to do a lot of, growing up, now in my twenties we dont do much of it anymore, except I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my facebook friends post in her status "Shaku-shanku, nakutera akatakweba?". This reminded me a lot of those childhood times. Whenever we met with other neighborhood children, if it was not to play outdoor games, it was sitting down and exchanging these folk-lore-ish games, which involved questioning each other spontaneously, to see if the rest knew what it meant. In fact, the questions and the answers to them were simply passed on from previous generations, I cant say I know exactly what they meant in details. Take an example of the above question from facebook; literally translated it could mean "I have slapped you a spell you will never forget". And the answer to that, or at least one of the answers to that was always - "N'akahoro k'oyerariize", literary meaning -it is
If you failed to answer right, the asking person would then ask for a cow to tell you the answer, by saying "Mp'ente yangye" -give me my cow; Of course this was just a game, not real cow was given -but if you asked the hardest ones and carried the day with the most 'cows', then you'd earn a reputation in the neighborhood and would be called upon whenever the game was on.
So there were many of such questions -hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands. I want to try and update myself and this page with those legendary questions or "Ebiito". Here are a few I remeber, and the likely answers; some of them have more than one answer
1. Nakuteera akatakweeba
- N'akahoro k'oyerariize,
2. Nyabwengye n'obwengye bwe
- N'ente kwinika amabeere, etaate mate,
3. Akeinika omukama (literary meaning what would make a king bend)
- N'akabaare k'omunkeito
4. Kaayera Ns'eeri
- N'akeika k'Abatabaazi
5.
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